Land Registry expedite first registration application

velgor

I've recently inherited my late father's house (jointly with my sister) which he owned (jointly with my mother, also deceased) for nearly 50 years. The intention is to sell the house as soon as possible. If I understand correctly it's necessary (or at least advisable) to get the property registered with the Land Registry before doing this.

I believe I have all the necessary paperwork (a pile of deeds a couple of inches thick going back to purchase of land 100+ years ago, Grant of Probate, Will, etc) and have engaged a solicitor to handle the application.

Given the estimated processing time for a first registration of 12+ months and the intention to sell immediately I believe it's appropriate to apply to expedite the application.

My solicitor's response was non-committal: "Further to this, we can advise that the Land Registry usually will only expedite a transaction where a delay would cause significant issues, such as for an ongoing sale of the property, and they do require to see evidence for the same."

Can anyone please advise the best course of action here? If I'm in a position to apply to expedite the application, what evidence or action is likely to be required?

silvercar

Probably evidence that you have a buyer who wants to proceed, so the lack of registration is holding up your sale.

Tiglet2

Land Registry only expedite when there is an ongoing sale or remortgage.  If you don't have the property on the market, then LR are unlikely to expedite.

You can however put the property up for sale and the buyer's solicitor will complete the registration after completion directly into the new buyer's name, but that is dependent upon all the paperwork being available so it is unlikely to be a complicated transaction.  You say you have all the documentation, so there should be no problem with this.

Land_Registry

Once you have a confirmed buyer the request to expedite can be made. The supporting evidence is usually a copy of the 'memorandum of sale' or similar which confirms the sale/purchase details and whose involved
Expedition gets the application start line quicker, generally within 10 days. How long the process then takes depends largely on the quality of the application as submitted. Expedition is not a 'magic wand' as a result but if everything is in order then there shouldn't be any issues re speed/delays
Request an expedite - GOV.UK - it's not all about sales/mortgages but they are the main reasons for such requests being made